Composite photographic process



No?- 27, 1934. c, G|LLETTE 1,982,211

I olrbsrra PHOTOGRAPHIC kaocnss Filed Sept. 2, 1931 11V Vizvrok Gil/ell.

ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 27, 1934 UNITED STATES 1,982,211 COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS Clyde F. Gillette.

New York, N. Y., assignor to United Research Corporation,

Long Island City, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application September 2, 1931, Serial No. 560,746

2 Claims.

to composite photogmeans for combining a separately photoa single photographic This invention relates raphy, and particularly to a .foreground subject with graphed background in 5 print.

In the making of photographs, and particularly in making motion pictures it is frequently found desirable to show a foreground, such as action, occurring at a place, or with a background,

to which it is not convenient "to send the foreground subject or actors.

An object of this invention is to produce a picture of foreground subjects, against a separately photographed background by ordinary illumination of the foreground subjects.

Another object of this invention is to combine a foreground subject and a separately photographed background by means of ordinary white light in combination with a special light.

Still another object of this invention is to combine a foreground subject with any one of several separately photographed background subjects.

Still another object of this invention is to photograph simultaneously a'iforeground subject, and a complementary opaque mask thereof.

A ,still further object of this invention is to photograph simultaneously a foreground subject, and produce a mask having outlines similar to the foreground subject, and thereafter'to print in successive steps, the foreground subject and v the background subject upon a single film, in

register.

Still another object of this invention is to obtain a separation of background and foreground portions for the production of a composite print, by means of differences in the respective actinic values.

In the prior art of composite photography, it has been found possible to combine a previously 4 photographed background with a foreground subject by a process in which the background is produced in the form of a dye-image positive print, placed in front of the sensitive material, and the action photographed by light of the same color as the dye-print, against a background illuminated with a contrasting color. This process is, however, complicated, because of the requirement of a plurality of carefully balanced colored lights, and the dye-print, which is both expensive and 60 somewhat diflicult to make.

This invention illuminates the foreground subject or action, in the usual way, against a backscreen of comparatively high luminosity, which luminosity may be of ordinary white light, or

may be of a special character such as ultra-violet,

infra-red, or other particularized .type of illumination; collects light from both foreground and screen in the usual camera lens, and produces therefrom a photograph of the foreground or action upon a plain background, and simultaneously produces a silhouette mask of the foreground subject upon a second film. A reverse silhouette mask is then made of the first mask; whereafter, a desired background is printed upon another film in register through the second sil houette mask, thereby producing an exposure of the background, with an unexposed opening therein, having the outlines fixed by the second mask, and corresponding to the outlines of the foreground subject. Thereafter the foreground subject, and first mask are printed in register upon the same. film thereby printing the foreground subject into the previously unexposed opening in the background print. This print may then be developed, and a printing negative made therefrom for the production of other positive prints.

The process of this invention thus utilizes only ordinary white light upon the action, and may utilize only white light of a different intensity for a background, or may utilize light of a different character for the background, without the necessity for putting a background print into the camera, to produce a foreground negative and associated masks by which the foreground after having been made, may be inserted in any desired background.

This invention further provides the appropriate masks by the use of ordinary photographic processes, without the necessity for color prints, intensification and reduction, or other special photographic processes. The process may further be conducted with an ordinary camera containing a plurality of unexposed films, or may be conducted by means of a special camera.

Other objects and details of this invention will be apparent from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view, partly diagramatic, of the apparatus for practising this invention,

Fig. 2 is a view of a negative obtained from the foreground subject,

Fig. 3 is a view of themask obtained from the camera,

Fig. 4 is a view of the reverse mask produced from the mask of Fig. 3,

Fig. 5 is a view of a background negative appropriate for use in this process,

Fig. 6 is a. view indicating the character of the latent image upon a film produced by printing the mask of Fig. 4 and the background negative of Fig. 5 in register, and

Fig. 7 is a view of the picture obtained by printing the negative of Fig. 2 and mask of Fig. 3 upon the film of Fig. 6, and thereafter developing the film.

Referring to the figures, a reflector system 1 is provided, and a source of light 2. Light from the source 2 is spread over the reflector 1 by means of an auxiliary reflector 3, and focussed by the reflector 1 into the camera 4, past the foreground subject 5, which foreground is illuminated by a light 6. .The light 6 is desirably a standard studio illuminant, such as an incandescent tungsten lamp, a mercury arc lam a carbon are, or controlled daylight, etc. The source 2 is a source of light of special character. This may be a carbon arc light, equipped with carbons to provide a relatively high intensity of ultra-violet light, and it may also be equipped with a filter opaque to visible light and transparent to ultra-violet, such as a thin film of metallic silver. The camera may be provided with a light splitting prism 7, preferably formed of transparent silica or quartz, with a diagonally placed film of metallic silver 8, as indicated.

A pair of films 9 and 10 are provided, which in this embodiment maybe ordinary films, or may be orthochromatic or panchromatic if desired for photographic quality aluthough such is not necessary since the ordinary film is sensitive both to white light and to ultra-violet.

In the operation of this embodiment of the process, the light from the illuminant 2 is scattered from the spreading member 3, which may be a polished steel or nickel sphere, onto the reflector l, which also may be a polished reflector, or may be a diffusely reflecting surface such as a magnesia, Chinese white, etc. Simultaneously a convenient light from the source 8 is thrown .upon the foreground subject 5. The two lights are collected by the lens of the camera 4, which in this embodiment is preferably a quartz lens, or a lens formed of a special glass which has a high transmission for ultra-violet light, and thrown into the prism '7. This prism being quartz is transparent to both the ultra-violet and the white light, but the silver film 8 is a reflector for white light, and transparent to the ultra-violet.

Accordingly the white light reflected from the subject 5 is reflected by the silver film 8 onto the film 10. Simultaneously, however, the ultraviolet from the background illumination passes through the prism 7 onto the film9. After exposure and development the films ,of Figs. 2 and 3 are obtained, Fig. 2 being a picture of the foreground upon a clear field, and Fig. 3 being an opaque mask, having outlines corresponding to the outlines of the foreground subject.

A print of the mask of Fig. 3 is then made to produce the film of Fig. 4. This is desirably done in a printer equipped with high grade register'pins, and it may be found convenient to do the printing directly in a camera equipped with a shuttle having accurate register pins, the camera being directed towards a uniformly illumi- {iafid screen or other source of even printing is A suitable background negative, such as Fig. 5 is made at any convenient time, or may be obtained from the library, according to the requirements, and a print is made of the negative of Fig. 5 and the second mask of Fig. 4 onto a suitable film. This printing step yields a film having an exposure, or a latent image thereon, corresponding to the background scene, but with an unexposed portion corresponding to the opaque silhouette in the mask of Fig. 4. Thereafter the same film of Fig. 6 is printed a second time with the foreground negative of Fig. 2, and the mask of Fig. 3, in register to produce the film of Fig. '7, which is shown as it appears after the two printings and development, etc.

It may be noted that register is essential, especially in the case of motion pictures, in order that any movement in the foreground may co-incide throughout in the case of all the masks and the foreground negative, both register frame by frame, and within each frame being essential. Register of the first character is most conveniently obtained by marks upon the length of film, such as punch marks, or wax pencil marks to indicate the coincident frames. Register within the frame, is most conveniently obtained by the use of both a camera and a printer having shuttles equipped with registry pins, which hold the film during the exposure period.

It is obvious that this procedure produces a foreground negative which is completely independent of the background negative, thereby differing from previously used composite photographic processes. Accordingly, a foreground subject may be combined with any background negative which may be chosen after the foreground subject has been photographed.-

This embodiment of the invention is not limited to ultra-violet light, but other convenient sources of light may be utilized, such for instance, as infra-red, obtainable from an incandescent lamp run at low. intensity. In this case the camera 4 may be equipped with an ordinary lens, and the prism 7 may be of glass with a convenient splitting mirror 8, which may be 93105 half siiveredmirror, a suitable film of dyed gelatin, or other convenient material. with infra-red light, the film 10 may or may not be panchromatized material, while the film 9 should be panchromatic, and sensitive to the infra-red.

It may be noted that this embodiment depends partly upon light character differences, and partly upon differences in luminosity level to produce the desired foreground photograph, and mask.

The process of this invention thus produces a new, simple, and satisfactory method for making composite photographs.

While the foregoing description discloses but a limited number of embodiments of the invention, it is capable of still other modifications therefrom without departure from the inventive concept disclosed, and it is therefore desired that only such limitations shall be imposed upon the appended claims as are stated therein, or required 125 by the prior art.

The invention claimed is:

1. The process of simultaneously producing on separate films a detail image of a foreground ob- ,iect and a mask surrounding a silhouette thereof 139 which comprises illuminating the foreground object and a plain ground therebehind with different characters of light respectively,- separating the ground light from the object light by reflection, and separately and simultaneously exposing 135 a plurality of light sensitive films to the object light and to the ground light respectively as thus separated.

2. .The process of producing a composite pic;- ture according to claim 1 comprising printing the film exposed to the light from the ground to produce a mask of said foreground object, printing ,a background film through said mask onto a negative film, and printing the image details of said other light sensitive film into the unexposed por- 5 tion of said negative film.

CLYDE F. GILLETTE. 

